Few figures in American politics have had as long, varied and distinguished a career in public life as Lamar Alexander.
The Tennessee Republican was a White House and Senate aide, served two terms as governor, was president at the University of Tennessee, education secretary for President George H.W. Bush and then capped it all off by serving three terms in the Senate.
It’s the successes and failures alike — and at so many levels of government over nearly 60 years — that make his upcoming memoir so engrossing. The Education of a Senator: From JFK to Trump puts his final public role in the title. Yet it’s the sweep of his career, the second part of the title, that makes the book so fascinating.